United States Endangered and Threatened Species

Project #1314 on iSENSEProject.org

This project provides data on the number of species of organisms that are either endangered or in threat of endangerment in the United States on September 15 2015. (Data is actually provided in real time on the following website.) 

https://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/pub/Boxscore.do

This topic can lead to many rich discussions in the classroom. Why is it important? What happens when an intact ecosystem is challenged? What implications does a threat to a species have for the world? Evolutionarily, why does a population go extinct? Data about these species can be applied to many areas of curriculum in the math and science classroom.

Using the bar chart, which threatened species have about the same mean average number of organisms as mammals? Which had the most? Can you think of a reason for the latter?

Using the scatterplot, manipulate the x and y axes to find out if there's a correlation between the number of threatened and endangered species? (Don't forget to draw a line of best fit). What information led you to make your decision? 

If data was added that includes global numbers of species that are threatened or endangered, rather than just those in the US, how do you think the pie graph would change? Explain your responses. What do you think would account for the population changes?